


The Next Step

by antioedipus



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Loss of Virginity, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:14:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24259495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antioedipus/pseuds/antioedipus
Summary: Knowing what it is like to be together.
Relationships: Nara Shikamaru/Yamanaka Ino
Comments: 6
Kudos: 61





	The Next Step

_Do you have it?_ Ino hisses into the conch of Shikamaru’s ear. She stares up at him, lips puckered and cheeks flushed. She tries to cover her anxieties with a demanding tone, but he can hear the tremor in her voice and feel the slight shaking in her limbs. She looks at him in that expectant way of hers, as if he knows how they ought to precede. She has a habit of looking to him for leadership, even in moments like this that are supposed to be just between the two of them.

Ino just turned eighteen, and while Shikamaru thinks using one’s chronological age to determine adulthood is dumb considering their careers, she has been crowing about how she is finally a grown up. Which means that she is now Ready for the Next Step.

Shikamaru, to be clear, wasn’t in a rush about anything. Like everything in their relationship that isn’t a relationship, he just wants them to both have a good time. When Ino first tried to rush them into having sex when she was sixteen, he had to be the one to pump the brakes, since it was evident that she didn’t want to be with him so much as she thought that sex was what he wanted from her. Shikamaru has never been into the idea that sex is about a man getting what he wants at the expense of his female partner. Which is what Ino is to him. Not his girlfriend, but a partner. Which means it is important to him that she wants this too.

When she told him that her parents had gone to a hot spring this weekend, she had given him a red freesia and stalked off. He had to go to the library to figure out what she had meant, and when he had put the single flower in the vase on his desk, he had gone straight to her house. Well, he had stopped by the drug store first. He went to the one on the other side of town, so it had actually taken him two hours when it was all said and done.

The vase is cheap, made of purple glass and purchased from one of those old ladies in the market. He had bought is especially for Ino’s flowers; she gave him one every week. They used them like a code. They develop their own language: lilies when she is sad, forget me nots and tulips when she is happy, but freesia is their flower. It was not lost on his parents that he always had a single flower on his desk. He even asked his mom how to make them last longer, and she had shown him without comment.

After he had left for the night, his dad poked his head into his room, to see what bloom Ino had chosen for him. Shikaku looked at the red flower, and he tilted his head with a smile. It was cute, the way Ino and Shikamaru thought they were being subtle. Shikaku and Inoichi had long ago come to the agreement not to meddle in the relationship between their children. He wasn’t dumb. When Inoichi had told him that he and Niko were leaving for a weekend, Shikaku understood the subtext. He nodded and told Inoichi to remind Ino that he and Yoshino were around if she needed anything. After Inoichi had left the office, Shikaku permitted himself a small smile.

It is funny how quickly time moves, and now their children were old enough to experience what it was like to be with another person. Shikaku smiled again, and closed the door to his son’s room before going to dinner.

So that’s how Shikamaru and Ino got here. He is hovering over her, and her hair is spread out on her purple pillow, and she is looking up at him like he knows how to have sex. By _it_ , he deduced that she meant a condom. Other than that, he didn’t really know what to do. He had seen porn, but he wasn’t dumb enough to think that it had anything to do with reality.

Ino looks up at him with her ocean eyes, and he can’t stop thinking about how he doesn’t want to hurt her. He wants it to be fun for both of them. That’s why he had put this off for two years.

She runs one of her hands against his ribs, a gesture of comfort. They are naked and flush, and he is really trying to maintain a cool head about this whole thing. He gets up and walks over to where she had flung his flak jacket. She holds herself up with her elbows, looking at him rummage in a pocket.

Ino feels a little cold without him, but she can tell he is a little freaked out too. He is being unusually quiet, and she wishes that she had bothered to at least watch porn. But she doesn’t really touch herself down there, so she has no idea what to do. Pretty much all of their physical relationship had been above the belt, since their parents were always around and she had never felt ready before.

But now she is ready and she has no clue what to do. She bites her lip, beginning to consider how unfair this whole thing is for him. When he finally gets a hold of the shiny foil packet and walks over to the bed, he sits down next to her. He tosses the condom onto her bedside table. He runs a hand on her flat stomach, and she can see he is trying not to throw up from nerves.

“Shikamaru?” Ino asks, making eye contact with him. “We don’t have to do this, if you don’t want to.” She puts a hand on his thigh, and he gives her a confused look.

“I mean, I want to,” he pauses, looking at the goosebumps on her arm, “I just…I’m not sure how to get there.” His father always said a smart man knows when to admit when he knows nothing. He looks back up Ino’s face, and she looks a little relieved.

“I have no clue either, so I guess we are just going to have to figure it out, together.” She smiles, since she excels at being the second in command to his leader. She sits up and kisses him, and pulls back to rub his cheek. He is clearly thinking, still rubbing small circles on her tummy. 

“Well, do you know what you like?” Shikamaru still has his thinking face on. She can tell because his head leans forward, like he can better visualize their possible moves.

“What I like?”

“You know, when you,” and he looks down between her legs, and she suddenly knows what he means. Her face turns red, like, Hinata bright, and she shakes her head. She clamps her legs together. Shikamaru would laugh if it wouldn’t hurt Ino’s feelings.

“You’ve never even thought about it?” he asks. Most of his fantasies, if he were to admit them, which he won’t, involve her touching herself.

“Well, it just…doesn’t seem ladylike.” Shikamaru scoffs, and Ino’s temper flares.

“You care about that?”

“Yes,” Ino crosses her arms. She has been trying to keep her anger in check, and for the most part she can, except when Shikamaru talks to her like she is an idiot. She cares about being ladylike. She still wants to be treated like a normal girl, even if she is a lethal weapon. She wants Shikamaru to look at her the way a man looks at a woman.

“Even when you kicked me across the field when we were genin?”

“I was making a point!” She retorts, in that quick, gutting way only she can. Shikamaru smiles at her, and his smile only gets bigger when he sees Ino bite back her irritation. Shikamaru clears his throat, and moves his hand to her thigh, tracing his mindless circles. He looks between her legs, and then back up at her eyes.

“It’s fun, you know.” He shrugs, and looks over to her purple wall. She doesn’t say anything, just huffs. Her arms remain crossed, and suddenly, it seems like this will never get off the ground. He still traces comforting circles on her thigh, and in their silence he notices that she leans towards his hand. He keeps doing it, thinking.

Then the idea strikes him, promising in both its simplicity and ease of execution.

“Well, why don’t you try it now?” Shikamaru smirks, and Ino looks at him like he has grown two heads.

“Why would I, when you’re here?” Ino’s mouth screws up, and Shikamaru can see that this is one of those rare moments between them where he will have to explain the plan in full.

“Well, I can tell you that it feels nice, but that’s because I know what I like.” He moves his hand across her leg, to her inner thigh, still moving in circles. “The point of touching yourself is to get to know what you like. So while I know what feels good to me, I have no clue what will feel good for you.”

“Why wouldn’t you?” She whispers this, and from her lack of eye contact, Shikamaru figures that she must be pretty embarrassed.

“Well I’m not in your body. I can guess, but it will be a lot easier for you try it and then show me later.” Ino uncrosses her arms, and puts them beside her body. “I won’t be here forever.” He adds, softly. Ino glares at him, but they both know that no one can make any promises. It’s why he has never told her that he loves her, or admitted all the time he spends thinking about her.

He knows how their story will play out: Ino will find someone cuter or Shikamaru will find someone smarter and then their dalliance will be over. It is already living on borrowed time. Ino chooses to ignore his comment, because unlike Shikamaru, she can’t picture being with anyone else. She hasn’t asked for anything more, because for all the books she has read, she is still more comfortable with the idea of the man pursuing the woman. If Shikamaru doesn’t desire her enough to make it official, it is probably her fault anyway.

But this, they can both agree on: thinking about the future is a drag.

“What does it feel like?” Ino looks into his eyes, and Shikamaru knows that look: _don’t you dare lie to me_. He thinks her reaction is funny, considering she was never this cautious when they tried pot or started drinking. Masturbation is way more fun than all those things combined, and infinitely safer.

“I can’t really explain how it feels for me, but I always feel more relaxed after.”

“Like, sleepy?” she cocks her head, because she would give anything to feel better than she does now.

“Well, calmer. Like something just clicks into place and the coil in your tummy just releases.” Shikamaru knows she is special because he can use juvenile words like _tummy_ around her. He even says it with a childish lilt, like they are kids and he is telling her how gross it is that she wants him and Chouji to eat her mud pies. He smiles at the memory, still tracing his circles. “Just try it.”

Ino hesitates, before lying down and spreading her legs slightly. She looks uncertain, and she pats the area on the bed beside her. She shifts so she is right up against the wall. She has a twin bed, so Shikamaru has to squeeze next to her. He lies down to face her, head on his hand. His other hand is on her stomach, but she moves it back down to her inner thigh. She gives him a doubtful look, a silent question that he just be here while she figures this out. He smiles and nods.

Ino looks straight ahead to the ceiling. She takes a breath, trying to think of this like a new jutsu. She closes her eyes and focuses: find the point where everything clicks together. Shikamaru moves his fingers in a comforting circle, and it makes the area below her stomach spark up. Ino feels the heat, and instinctually, she knows that to be the feeling to chase.

She moves her right hand down between her thighs, and starts running a finger up and down. It takes her two minutes of awkward stroking to realize that she should stick the area at the top of her line, and she moves her finger down until she gets to the softest skin she has ever felt on her body. She starts copying Shikamaru’s circles, and she begins to feel what he describes as a coil, but to her, feels like an impossibly small bundle of circuits.

Shikamaru watches her push herself against her hand as it went in deeper, and the way she starts rocking her hips back and forth. He hears her breathing change and her face screw up in concentration. _She’s found it_ , he thinks, _she found the coil_. She bites her lip, and he thinks she looks impossibly pretty. Ino is the kind of beautiful that can only be done justice by cliché. He wonders what she is thinking about—she has been quiet this whole time, and out of respect, he stays quiet too.

She isn’t thinking about anything, really. She merely occupies the blank, meditative space of sensation.

Even though his erection is pressed uncomfortably against her hip, he doesn’t move his hand from her thigh. She needs to figure this out for herself.

It feels like seconds, but from the clock on her desk, Shikamaru knows it has been thirty minutes, and he finally hears a squeaky _fuck_ and a desperate look on her face. Her hand is moving fast, and it takes everything not to move his hand up her thigh. He puts his head down and kisses her shoulder and collarbone, even when she throws her head back to expose the column of her throat.

When she finally lets out a long exhale, he looks back at her face. She has a dumb, happy smile. Her cheeks are all flushed, and she is a little sweaty, but he thinks she had never looked happier. He just goes in and kisses her lower lip, and he feels her smile against his cupid’s bow. She pulls back and rests her forehead against his.

“That was fun,” she mutters before kissing him again, and this time, he doesn’t bother asking as he shifts to loom over her. Both of her hands are on his face, and she easily opens her hips for him. She feels more present than she did before, and looks impossibly excited.

“You know, it probably won’t feel like that,” Shikamaru grumbles as she snatches the condom her from nightstand and, in what looks like a smooth and practiced motion, she rips the package rolls the condom down him.

“Well, now that I know it is possible we have no excuse but to try,” she beams up at him, and she moves her hand back down. Thanks to years of teamwork, he can see that she is going to guide him in. Her face twitches, and he wonders if he makes a similar expression. He moves his pelvis down, which bunches her hips up and she instinctively curls her legs around him.

The knot of her legs comforts him the way his hand on her thigh did for Ino. She smiles at him, reassuring him that she is just trying to find the place. Eventually, she finds the divot and the angle and guides him in.

Her face scrunches up, and he is alarmed, but her legs pull him closer and she mutters that she is okay, she just needs to adjust. He holds his breath, looking down at her. It kind of pinches, the way she fits around him. It isn’t unpleasant, but it’s not the best.

They pause for a few breaths, and he feels her relax around him. She looks back up at him, and with a nod to signal that he can start moving, he rocks his hips gently. He can feel her hand between them, and she smiles at him.

She nods, encouraging him to go faster, so he does. The feeling sort of blindsides him; that same honeyed feeling from when they first kissed and every time since, but multiplied exponentially. It is like the coil was barely there and all of the sudden it was close to bursting. Ino can see it on his face, and he swears, she starts to move against him, and he doesn’t want this to end but it is out of his control and he crashes into her.

She squeaks, but she wraps herself around him and he buries his face into the bend of her neck and shoulder. She strokes his back. The heat dissipates, and he feels betrayed, thinking it would last longer than it did. He mumbles a sorry, and kisses her shoulder.

He tries not to take it personally when she starts giggling, but he does take the liberty of glaring at her. She didn’t have to rub it in that he wasn’t very good at this whole sex thing.

She looks at him, and apparently this makes it funnier for her.

“Why are you apologizing?” Ino giggles, putting her hand on his cheek, “didn’t you have fun?”

“You thought that was fun?” Shikamaru blushes, thinking about the explosive feeling. Ino stops laughing, but she still smiles.

“Yes.”

“How?” Shikamaru is curious, and he gets up to pull out of her. She winces as he pulls out. He looks at her apologetically, but she waves him off.

He gets up to put a knot in the condom and throws it out, and she gets up too. She looks around for a shirt, taking a nerve-wracking amount of time to answer. He easily throws it into her wastebasket. She picks one up and pulls it over her head.

She hums thoughtfully as she pulls all her hair out of the shirt, shaking it so it falls down her back. Shikamaru recognizes it as the infamous “Bahama Mama” shirt, with a cat wearing a bikini on it. When they were twelve, he and Chouji hadn’t stopped making fun of her for wearing it. She had answered the door wearing it, when they had gone to pick her up for a mission. Asuma had just rolled his eyes and told Ino to put actual clothes on. Ino hadn’t talked to any of them the entire mission. She just glared. Back then, the shirt had fallen down to her knees. Now it was mid-thigh. _When did she get so much taller?_ He keeps staring at her legs, and she refrains from commenting.

“Well, it felt good to be so close to you. And I got to have my fun first, so it was nice to get to sit back and watch you feel the same thing, I guess.” She stands back on her heels, rocking.

“Oh.”

“You had fun too, right?” Ino looks uncertain, walking back to the bed. She picks up the blanket she keeps at the foot her bed and throws it over Shikamaru.

“Of course I did. It felt…great,” he looks up at her, suddenly feeling very sleepy. He yawns, and she smiles.

“I’m going to go downstairs. You should sleep a bit.” She winks and leaves the room, closing the door gently.

Ino smiled to herself. She walked over to the bathroom, and when she sat down on the toilet, she thinks of her mom’s advice: “it only feels good with someone you love, and remember to pee after.”

She looks at the green wall. She always thought she was supposed to fall in love with a boyfriend. But the impossibly full, tender feeling in her chest when she thought of how Shikamaru looked at her when they were finally one could only be love.


End file.
